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PAYING THE SAME DUES?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published February 14, 2020
There are often big
fights in condo associations when it comes to maintenance fees –
and equal pays. Mainly in older condos fights often go to court,
because it makes to me absolutely no sense to me if the owner of
a studio apartment with only one (1) window, pays the same
special assessment for window replacement than the owner of a
3-bedroom unit with eight (8) windows.
It gets even worse
if the owner of a unit with no balcony has to pay a special
assessment for balcony replacement necessary for units with a
balcony.
But, in older
condominiums you often find in the governing documents a
provision that states that every unit-owner has to pay the same,
be it monthly maintenance fees or special assessments -- no
matter the size of the unit.
It really makes no
sense, but if the governing docs say so, there is really no way
around, not even by fighting the injustice in court.
The only way to
avoid this problem is by NOT BUYING into a condo association
where the governing docs require the owner of a small unit to
pay the same as the owner of a big unit!
Life in condo associations isn’t always fair!
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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